Funding Found to Keep Ammunition Hill Open

An eleventh hour deal will keep Ammunition Hill open

By David Lev

First Publish: 2/20/2012, 10:58 PM

Ammunition Hill

Chezki Ezra

After days of uncertainty, it was decided on Monday evening that the Ammunition Hill memorial site will remain open, at least through the end of 2012. A total of NIS 2 million will be transferred to the site to ensure that it remains open, with NIS 400,000 to be transferred immediately.

The agreement on the transfer was made after a meeting between representatives of the Ammunition Hill non-profit organization and Government Secretary Zvi Hauser. The two sides also decided to advance legislation that will ensure permanent funding for the site.

Menachem Landau, chairman of the non-profit organization, said that “we are happy to have achieved an agreement that will prevent the closure of the site. We want to thank the Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, for his personal intervention in solving the problem, and preventing a great injury to the people of Israel, the families of the fighters who were killed in battle,” he said.

“We hope and believe that the government will work with us to develop and improve the site in order to enable the youth, soldiers, ordinary Israelis and tourists to participate in the tradition of bravery and values represented by Ammunition Hill, in order to preserve the spirit of those who fell in the battle here,” Landau added.

Earlier, protesters had taken down an Israeli flag that had been flying on the site, in protest over the prospective closing due to a lack of funds. With the agreement, the flag was hoisted aloft again, and Landau expressed his satisfaction at the flying of the flag. “It means that we can now continue our work here,” he said.

Speaking earlier, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that “Ammunition Hill will remain open in order to enable all Israelis to continue to visit it and learn about the bravery of our soldiers during the Six Day War.”